Charlotte Bobcats Narrow Their Coaching Search To Three Candidates

It appears the Charlotte Bobcats are finally entering the final stages of selecting their next head coach, as Chris Broussard of ESPN reports they have narrowed their search to three candidates: Brian Shaw, Jerry Sloan, and Quin Snyder.

Each of the three will meet with team owner Michael Jordan within the next week or so according to the report, and then a decision will likely be made soon thereafter.

Recent Hall of Fame inductee Jerry Sloan is the only candidate with prior head coaching experience, resigning midseason during his 23rd season leading the Utah Jazz.

Sloan took the Jazz to the NBA Finals twice during his tenure as their coach, however, he was denied of a championship both times by the Chicago Bulls and his potential future boss, Michael Jordan.

Although Shaw doesn't have any previous head coaching experience, he was a protege of the legendary Phil Jackson and has been an assistant head coach with the Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers.

He has been an assistant coach since 2004-05 and was considered for the Lakers and Orlando Magic's head coaching vacancies over the past two seasons.

Quin Snyder was an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers this past season (he still likely will be if he doesn't land the Bobcats job) and coached in the NBDL for three seasons prior to that with the Austin Toros.

Snyder was also interviewed for the Minnesota Timberwolves job last summer, before they had even fired Kurt Rambis.

The narrowing of candidates comes after the team originally had ten people interview with team executives Rod Higgins and Rich Cho for the position.

Including the three finalists, the others that were interviewed were Orlando assistant Patrick Ewing, former Portland coach Nate McMillan, Golden State assistant Michael Malone, Cleveland assistant Nate Tibbetts, Charlotte assistant Stephen Silas, Memphis assistant Dave Joerger and St. John's University assistant Mike Dunlap.

In my opinion, Sloan would probably be the best choice for the job if the Bobcats were closer to being a championship contender, but considering the fact that he is 70-years old will probably mean he won't be coaching long enough to see the transformation through.

With that being said, I think the Bobcats will likely pick Shaw when all three of the meetings with Jordan are complete, as he is widely considered to be the best assistant coach in the league right now.

Shaw spent plenty of time learning coaching tactics from Jackson and has first-hand experience with the Triangle Offense, which with the right players, can be one of the most successful offenses in basketball.

I think Shaw is ready at this point in his coaching career to take a head coaching position, and a spot with the Charlotte Bobcats would be the perfect place to begin his career in the lead role on the bench.

Regardless of who lands the vacant job, they will have a massive task on their hands of turning around a franchise that finished with the worst winning percentage in NBA history last season (.106).

Which coach do you think would be the best fit with the Charlotte Bobcats? Do you think they left someone out of their final three that would've made a better coach? Share what you think about their coaching vacancy down below in the comments section.